Alfons Maria Zimmermann

Alfons Maria Zimmermann OSB, baptized Johann Michael Zimmermann , (born June 23, 1891 in Schwandorf ; † March 18, 1962 in Regensburg ) was a Benedictine in the Bavarian monastery of Metten and an important representative of modern hagiology .

Life

Michael Zimmermann attended the St. Michaels Gymnasium of the Benedictines in Metten . After graduating from high school in 1911, he entered the Benedictine abbey there and received the religious name Alfons Maria when he was professed in 1912. From 1912 to 1915 he studied theology at the Lyceum in Eichstätt and was ordained a priest on October 21, 1915 . This was followed in the years 1915/1916 and 1917-1919 the study of mathematics at the University of Würzburg . After his legal clerkship, he worked from 1920 to 1929 as a teacher at the grammar school and at the same time as an educator in the seminar of the Metten monastery.

From 1929 to 1933 Alfons Maria Zimmermann, who had already made a name for himself as a hagiologist through some studies, was released from his abbot to compile a Calendarium Benedictinum , a compilation of scientifically critical life descriptions of all saints and blessed of the Benedictine order. The great reputation and the high level of competence that Alfons Maria Zimmermann had acquired in this field is evident in the fact that he was responsible for the 1st edition of the Lexicon for Theology and Church as the specialist in the field of hagiography.

In 1933 Alfons Maria Zimmermann became director of the late vocational high school in Munich-Fürstenried . After this school was closed by the National Socialists in 1939, he returned to the Metten Monastery as second economist and master chef. From 1949 to 1958, Zimmermann was again director of the late vocational high school in Munich-Fürstenried and Waldram . After that he worked again as a teacher at the grammar school in Metten and at the grammar school in Niederaltaich until his death in 1962.

Alfons Maria Zimmermann was one of the founding members of the Bavarian Benedictine Academy in 1921 .

Works

• Calendarium Benedictinum, 4 vols., 1933–1938.
• Numerous articles in the Lexicon for Theology and Church (1st and 2nd edition)

literature

• Romuald Bauerreiß: RP Alfons Zimmermann OSB. In: Studies and communications of the Benedictine order. 72, 1961, pp. 150f.
• Karl Braun: The late career seminar in Fürstenried. In: Georg Schwaiger (Ed.): The Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in the time of National Socialism. Volume I. 1984, pp. 747-758.
• Wilhelm Fink : History of the development of the Benedictine abbey of Metten , Part I: The book of professions of the abbey , Metten 1926, 102.
• Stephan Haering : On the 100th birthday of a Benedictine hagiologist. In: Heritage and Mission. 67, 1991, p. 476 f.
• Stephan Haering : Father Alfons Maria Zimmermann OSB (1891–1962). Life and work of a Benedictine hagiologist. In: Studies and communications of the Benedictine order. 102, 1991, pp. 405-426.
• Stephan Haering : RP Alfons Maria Zimmermann OSB 1891 - 1962. Benedictine, teacher, hagiographer. 100th birthday commemoration . In: Alt- und Jung-Metten 58.1 (1991), pp. 23-26.
• Stephan Haering:  Zimmermann, Alfons Maria. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 15, Bautz, Herzberg 1999, ISBN 3-88309-077-8 , Sp. 1591-1593.
• Michael Kaufmann: Memento mori. In memory of the deceased conventuals of the Benedictine abbey of Metten since the rebuilding in 1830. Metten 2008, 386f. ( History of the development of the Benedictine abbey of Metten. Part V).